Adobe Gallery Blog
Cochiti Female Figurine with 2 Children in Her Arms by Felipa Trujillo - C3688.68
It is well known that Helen Cordero made what has now been named the Storyteller figurine in 1964. Her definition of a storyteller was that it was in honor of her grandfather, a well-known storyteller at Cochiti Pueblo, so it was always a male figurine in Helen's eyes.
Before Helen Cordero's first storyteller, female figurines were made by potters at Cochiti and they have been named Singing Mothers. In the book The Pueblo Storyteller by Barbara Babcock, there is a Singing Mother figurine which Babcock says pre-dates 1930. She further states that "The shape of her head and ears and her 'coffee bean' eyes are remarkably similar to figures made by Felipa Trujillo in the 1960s and 1970s." If this is indeed one made by Felipa Trujillo before 1930, she must be one of the earliest Cochiti potters to do so.